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History on the 31st of July

History
Date Text
31 Jul 1773 RELIGIOUS Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'Duty is ourpart; the care is His.'
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31 Jul 1776 RELIGIOUS Francis Salvador, a plantation owner from South Carolina, became the first Jewto die for American independence, when he was killed in a skirmish with the British.
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31 Jul 1874 RELIGIOUS Patrick Francis Healy was inaugurated president of Georgetown University, theoldest Catholic university in America. Healy at the same time became the first African-American to head a predominantly white university.
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31 Jul 1889 RELIGIOUS Death of Horatius Bonar, 81, Scottish preacher and author of the hymn, 'I Heardthe Voice of Jesus Say.'
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31 Jul 1914 WW2 Germany began to mobilize. 
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31 Jul 1914 WW2 General Joffe, the French Chief of the General Staff, warned the cabinet that a delay in calling out the reservists could result in an initial abandonment of French territory. 
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31 Jul 1916 WW2 Robert Saundby forced down a German Eindekker aircraft but was slightly injured in the fighting. 
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31 Jul 1917 WW2 The third battle of Ypres (also known as Passchendale) began. It was a British offensive designed with the aim of breaking through the German trench lines to the German submarine bases in Belgium and to relieve pressure on the collapsing Russian army in the east. Neither of these objectives was achieved. For much of the three months battle successive attacks by Gough’s Fifth army and Plumer’s Second army foundered in terrain that had been turned into a swamp by intensive artillery bombardment, thus precluding the use of tanks. The limit of the British advance was five miles, at a cost of 250,000 casualties. 
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31 Jul 1917 WW2 Lieutenant General Yujiro Nakamura succeeded Lieutenant General Akira Nakamura as the Governor-General of Kwantung Leased Territory in northeastern China. 
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31 Jul 1917 WW1 Begin of Third Battle of Ypres
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31 Jul 1917 WW1 Begin of Third Battle of Ypres (2)
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31 Jul 1917 WW1 Begin of Battle of Passchendaele
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31 Jul 1918 WW2 Captain G. E. Chaplin of the Imperial Russian Navy landed with a small task force of (white) Russians at Archangel, Russia. The demoralised Bolsheviks put up only a limited resistance in the area of the docks and railway station, and by the end of the day the "Whites" had taken the town with only a few casualties. 
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31 Jul 1919 WW2 The German Reichstag passed the new constitution. 
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31 Jul 1923 WW2 Yubari was commissioned into service. 
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31 Jul 1923 WW2 Detroit was commissioned into service. 
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31 Jul 1929 WW2 Myoko was commissioned into service. 
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31 Jul 1932 WW2 German national elections ended with Nazi Party members gaining 230 seats, or 38% and the majority, in the Reichstag. 
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31 Jul 1934 WW2 I-68 / I-168 was commissioned into service. 
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31 Jul 1935 WW2 Jean de Vienne was launched at Lorient, France. 
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31 Jul 1937 WW2 Zhao Dengyu was posthumously promoted to the rank of general second class. 
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31 Jul 1938 WW2 Japanese 19th Division and Manchukuo puppet units defeated the Soviet 39th Rifle Corps during a night battle during the Battle of Lake Khasan. 
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31 Jul 1939 WW2 Neville Chamberlain spoke before the House of Commons of the British Parliament, noting that he was engaging in talks with the Soviet Union as a means to contain German aggression. 
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31 Jul 1939 WW2 Repair ship Akashi was completed and placed on the reserve list. 
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31 Jul 1940 WW2 German submarine U-99 sank British ship Jamaica Progress at 0138 hours (killing 7) and British ship Jersey City at 1324 hours (killing 2) 50 miles north of Ireland. She was attacked by depth charges by escort vessels and a bomb from a flying boat, but she was able to escape undamaged. 
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31 Jul 1940 WW2 British destroyer HMS Whitshed hit a mine off Harwich, Essex, England and lost most of her bow, but she able to be towed to Harwich by the stern by destroyer HMS Wild Swan. She would remain under repair at Chatham, Kent, England until 21 Dec 1940. 
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31 Jul 1940 WW2 German armed merchant cruiser Pinguin sank British ship Domingo De Larringa in the South Atlantic 1,000 miles east of Pernambuco, Brazil. 8 were killed and 30 were taken prisoner. 
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31 Jul 1940 WW2 British submarine HMS Spearfish departed Rosyth, Scotland, United Kingdom to patrol off the Norwegian coast. 
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31 Jul 1940 WW2 Heavy cruisers USS Wichita and USS Quincy arrived at Bahia, Brazil. 
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31 Jul 1940 WW2 Adolf Hitler announced that he would decide whether the invasion of Britain was to take place in mid-Sep 1940 or May 1941 in a few days; the progress of the Luftwaffe campaign over Britain would be among the key factors in his decision process. 
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31 Jul 1940 WW2 Joachim von Ribbentrop, upon learning that the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, was departing for the Bahamas soon, issued an order to send the British royalty another message overnight, stressing the fact that Germany was attempting to avoid armed conflict with the United Kingdom, which could be achieved with the duke was willing to assist, beginning by not departing Europe for the Bahamas. 
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31 Jul 1940 WW2 At Adolf Hitler's residence near Berchtesgaden, München-Oberbayern, Germany, German military leaders were advised of Hitler's plan to attack the Soviet Union. Hitler made it clear that an invasion of the USSR was a way of securing mastery of Europe, as the fall of the USSR would certainly force Britain to surrender. The military leaders were told to expect the invasion to start in May 1941, and would likely last about five months. 
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31 Jul 1940 WW2 Mitsubishi delivered the first production Zero fighter to the Japanese Navy. 
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31 Jul 1940 WW2 While German Army and Navy leadership continued to disagree over the plans for the invasion of Britain (with Admiral Erich Raeder convincing Adolf Hitler to delay the invasion until mid-Sep 1940), the Luftwaffe moved forth with its plans and began to shift the main target from English Channel shipping to RAF airfields in southern England. Although 77 RAF aircraft were destroyed and 43 were damaged (along with 67 airmen killed and 23 wounded), aircraft production during the month was greater than aircraft lost. 
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31 Jul 1940 WW2 American ambassador in London, England, United Kingdom Joseph Kennedy relayed to US Secretary of State Cordell Hull another request from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for destroyers. "If we cannot get reinforcement," Churchill noted, "the whole fate of the war may be decided by this minor and easily remediable factor." 
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31 Jul 1940 WW2 The United States Government prohibited the export of aviation petrol outside of the American continent. 
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31 Jul 1941 WW2 Reinhard Heydrich received instructions from Hermann Göring to prepare the implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish question, Endlösung. 
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31 Jul 1941 WW2 Reichskommissar Josef Terboven declared Norway under a state of emergency. 
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31 Jul 1941 WW2 Romanian leader Ion Antonescu formally accepted German leader Adolf Hitler's request for Romanian troops to conquer and occupy the Ukrainian territory between Dniester and Bug Rivers. 
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31 Jul 1941 WW2 Soviet destroyer Sokrushitelny made rendezvous with British minelayer HMS Adventure near the Gorodetski lighthouse at the entrance to the White Sea in northern Russia. 
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31 Jul 1941 WW2 USS Astoria arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 US Navy and Marines ended a four-day amphibious landing exercise. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 Destroyer Yuzuki arrived at Rabaul, New Britain, Bismarck Islands. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 Hiyo was commissioned into service. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 USS Grunion damaged Japanese transport Kashima Maru 10 miles north if Kiska, US Territory of Alaska at 0547 hours; Kashima Maru fought back with her 80-millimeter gun, sinking USS Grunion, killing all 70 aboard. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein shot down three Allied aircraft, increasing his total victories to 17. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 US aircraft located and attacked a Japanese convoy bringing reinforcements from Rabaul, New Britain to Buna, Australian Papua; the convoy was forced to return to Rabaul by this attack. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 Canadian Hudson aircraft (Squadron Leader Norville Small) sank German submarine U-754 on the surface 120 miles southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; all 43 aboard were killed. 760 miles east of St. John's, Newfoundland, German submarines U-164, U-210, U-217, U-511, U-553, and U-588 attacked Allied convoy ON-115 without success; Canadian corvette HMCS Wetaskiwin and destroyer HMCS Skeena counterattacked and sank U-588 with depth charges, killing all 46 Germans aboard. 150 miles east of the Azores islands, U-213 attacked Allied convoy OS-35 but was sunk by British sloops HMS Erne, HMS Rochester, and HMS Sandwich; all 50 aboard were killed. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 George Kenney arrived at Townsville, Australia. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 USAAF began a 7-day bombardment against Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Meanwhile, the Allied invasion force (75 warships and transports with 16,000 men on aboard) for Guadalcanal departed from Fiji. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 1,000 Jews from Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in occupied Czechoslovakia were taken to Baranowitsche Concentration Camp in Poland and gassed in vans. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 30 men of Australian Plover Force attempted to land on Tanimbar, Moluccan Islands, Dutch East Indies; they were driven off by Japanese gunfire. The Japanese would secure the island before the end of the day. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 630 British bombers (308 Wellington, 113 Lancaster, 70 Halifax, 61 Stirling, 54 Hampden, and 24 Whitley) attacked Düsseldorf, Germany with 900 tons of bombs, destroying 453 buildings, damaging 15,000 buildings, killing 276 civilians, and wounding 1,018 civilians; 29 bombers were lost on this attack. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 Shokaku arrived at Hashirajima island in Hiroshima Bay, Japan. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 Kaname Harada was recalled from quarantine into service. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 Adolf Hitler reversed his order of 23 Jul 1942 which detached the 4th Panzer Army from the assault on Stalingrad, Russia; the 4th Panzer Army began moving north toward Stalingrad, which caused some logistical issues as other German units moved south along the same roads in the invasion of the Caucasus region. 
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31 Jul 1942 WW2 German bombers attacked Hull, England, United Kingdom with 46 tons of bombs between 0215 hours and 0325 hours, damaging Victoria Dock facilities and destroying several homes on Grindell Street. 
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31 Jul 1943 WW2 Young was commissioned into service. 
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31 Jul 1943 WW2 After studying the findings of a small joint US Army, US Navy, and US Marine Corps reconnaissance mission to Vella Lavella between 21 and 22 Jul 1943, it was concluded that a landing in the Barakoma area was feasible. 
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31 Jul 1943 WW2 Oberleutnant Erich Baumgartl of the German Kampfgeschwader 55 wing was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. 
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31 Jul 1943 WW2 A Brazilian Air Force Lockheed A-28A aircraft caught a surfaced German submarine, U-199, in the Atlantic Ocean. Though damaged by anti-aircraft fire the Brazilian crew managed to keep the U-Boat on the surface until a Brazilian Air Force Catalina aircraft arrived and sank the submarine. 
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31 Jul 1943 WW2 Repair ship Akashi began repairing cruiser Kumano at Truk, Caroline Islands. 
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31 Jul 1943 WW2 The Air Force of the Republic of China formed the 1st Bomb Group (Provisional) and the 3rd Fighter Group (Provisional); these two groups would form the foundation of the Chinese-American Composite Wing (Provisional) in two months. 
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31 Jul 1944 WW2 Tirpitz conducted exercises at sea with five destroyers. 
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31 Jul 1944 WW2 USS Tang departed for her fourth war patrol off Honshu, Japan. 
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31 Jul 1944 WW2 British VIII Corps launched Operation Bluecoat towards Vire River in Normandy, France. Meanwhile, US 4th Armored Division captured Avranches and 20,000 prisoners of war in 6 days. 
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31 Jul 1944 WW2 USS Kete was commissioned into service with Commander R. L. Rutter in command. 
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31 Jul 1944 WW2 The British 9th Armoured Division (Major General John D'Arcy) was disbanded. 
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31 Jul 1944 WW2 USS Parche attacked a Japanese convoy off Taiwan and sank cargo ship Manko Maru and tanker Koei Maru; she also shared the credit with USS Steelhead for sinking another transport. She expended 19 torpedoes during this attack. Parche's commanding officer, Commander Lawson Ramage would later be awarded the Medal of Honor for this attack while the crew received the Presidental Unit Citation. 
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31 Jul 1944 WW2 Nachi departed Ominato Guard District, Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. 
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31 Jul 1945 WW2 USS Blenny reported sinking two small Japanese craft with the deck gun in the South China Sea off Malaya. 
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31 Jul 1945 WW2 Operation Struggle: British midget submarine XE3, crewed by Lieutenant Ian Fraser, Acting Leading Seaman James Magennis, Sub-Lieutenant William James Lanyon Smith, (of New Zealand), and Engine Room Artificer Third Class Charles Alfred Reed, attacked Japanese shipping at Singapore, sinking heavy cruiser Takao. Fraser and Magennis would later be awarded the Victoria Cross for this sinking, while Smith would receive the Distinguished Service Order and Reed the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal. 
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31 Jul 1945 WW2 Pierre Laval surrendered in Austria. 
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31 Jul 1945 WW2 USS Bugara sank 1 small enemy craft with her deck gun in the Gulf of Siam and South China Sea area before dawn, and 4 more during the day. 
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31 Jul 1945 WW2 USS Sennet attacked a Japanese patrol boat in the Sea of Japan; all 3 torpedoes missed. 
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31 Jul 1945 WW2 Captain Marcy M. DuPre, Jr. was named the commanding officer of USS Columbia, relieving Captain Maurice E. Curts. 
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31 Jul 1945 WW2 Claire Chennault departed China for the United States. 
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31 Jul 1945 WW2 American PB4Y aircraft based in Okinawa, Japan destroyed a bridge on an important railway in Korea. 
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31 Jul 1945 WW2 USS Sunfish completed her scheduled overhaul at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, United States. 
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31 Jul 1946 WW2 USS Petrof Bay was decommissioned from service. 
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31 Jul 1946 WW2 Manila Bay was decommissioned from service. 
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31 Jul 1946 WW2 Baishiyi Airfield near Chongqing, China closed. 
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31 Jul 1948 WW2 The battleship USS Nevada, having survived both sinking at Pearl Harbor and the Bikini Atoll atom bomb test, was finally destroyed as a target off US Territory of Hawaii. 
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31 Jul 1948 WW2 German industrialist Alfried Krupp was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and the confiscation of his wealth. 
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31 Jul 1970 RELIGIOUS The complete New American Standard Version of the Bible (NASB) was firstpublished. (The completed NASB New Testament had been released earlier, in 1963.)Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987. Additional information supplied by the author. Contact via E-mail:William D. Blake. (pilgrimwb@aol.com)
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